OK guys I just read your thread about valuing a steel boat. How about a fiberglass one. What multiplier does one apply to the asking price to come up with a good offer price? .85 .75 . My broker thinks .95 of asking on every boat, is appropriate!

I have tried using NADA or asking my insurance company for what they would insure a particular boat. But that results in offers that no one seriously considers.

If you find a specific model boat that you want, check the online sources for prices on comparable models, then offer what you think it's worth. You can go crazy trying to figure out a formula. Time on market, age, condition, etc., are all valid things to consider, but in the end, it comes down to what you think it's worth. You could start off at 20% less than the asking price, and dicker from there. No price will be firm till after a survey, so the offered price just gets the ball rolling.

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Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

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Ditto Sailing Dog's opinion. Some boats hold value much better and are in high demand and thus less open to discounting. Others are less desired and in plentiful supply. Some brokers prefer to list high and come down in negotiations...others encourage owners to be realistic to encourage a quicker sale. So...even setting aside age, condition, time on market etc. , I think it is impossible to generalize. The way I've always done it is to try to determine what the boat is worth in FULLY restored "cruise ready" condition by comparing it to others sold (BUC book) of the same model and SIMILAR boats....(i.e. BeneHuntAlinas!) ...then deducting for the cost to bring the boat being looked at to that condition. Then offering somewhat below that depending on my assessment of the owners urgency, the time it wil take to restore and how hard it would be for me to walk away from the boat! Then I let the surveyor help me reduce the cost further by finding the stuff I was not aware of and providing estimates as to the cost to repair.

The problem is when I look at a boat here or on Yachtworld and it says $150,000. Is that 120,000 that I could afford or 145,000 that I can't. I hate bothering brokers unless I am serious. Most of my local ones have labeled me a dreamer as it is.

Well, you could go with a survey, and see the results... and then compare it to the comparable prices on other boats of similar size, age and condition.

Of course, any serious problems in the survey should lead to a corresponding drop in the price.

Generally, IMHO your offer should be about twice the difference from what you are really willing to pay for the boat... that way, if they meet you halfway, then you'll be paying what you think is the right price. Of course, this is not set in stone. If the boat has been on the market for a while, then I would drop the amount a bit...if the boat is a particularly popular, classic, or rare model—then you should probably adjust the offer upwards a bit. YMMV.

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Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

You never know all the variables. Maybe the husband died, and the wife wants to be rid of it. What about the pristine boat in "like new" condition, whose owner is going through a divorce, and does not want the spouse to have the asset, no matter what it costs him? Maybe the owner has already bought another boat, and can't afford the yard bills for two. After looking around and getting a feel for what the kind of boat you're looking for should cost, make an offer. If it's rejected out of hand, it's too low, and you've learned something. If there's a counter-offer, maybe you're in the ballpark.
If it's accepted, you may have been able to get the boat for even less. In any case, any offer should be made subject to a survey. The survey will turn up something which can be used to bring the price down further or which can cause the deal to fall apart, according to what YOU want. Each boat is different and each owner is also different. It's a totally free market. Take advantage of it if you can, and don't get hung up on formulae that don't work.

Long before I started reading Sailnet I new about the need for a survey. Certainly good advice. But the survey follows the offer. And one can't trust a survey commissioned by the broker.

So how does one guess what a boat is worth? Saying to offer "what it's worth to me" doesn't help. I have bought a small power boat and several small sailboats over the years. Now I'm looking at a J-37c and I don't have a clue what a proper offer is. I offered .85 of the asking price but no luck

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